Case Number 06653

HOTEL RWANDA

The Charge

When the world closed its eyes, he opened his arms.

Opening Statement

The Rwandan civil war of 1994 led to the slaughter of up to 1 million people
over the course of a few months -- primarily of the minority Tutsi ethnic group,
but also moderate members of the majority Hutu who did not support the militias
and their genocidal agenda.

Despite the United Nation's charter to prevent genocide, the international
community turned its back on Rwanda. The US State Department defined the events
as "acts of genocide" to distinguish them from "genocide" --
the magic word that would have compelled them to act, based on their
ratification of the UN's Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the
Crime of Genocide.

Hotel Rwanda is the story of one Rwandan's response to the
realization that he and his countrymen stood alone. It is based on the true
story of Paul Rusesabagina, whose actions helped save over 1,200 Rwandan
refugees.

Facts of the Case

Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle, Traffic) is the well-connected
assistant manager of the five-star Milles Collines hotel in Kigali, Rwanda. When
his country begins to dissolve into ethnic violence and chaos, Paul watches as
his neighbor is beaten and taken away, saying "there is nothing we can
do" while he leads his family back to the safety of their home.

When troops arrive at his door, however, he can't ignore the broken-down
politics of his country any longer. Paul is Hutu, while his wife, Tatiana
(Sophie Okonedo, Dirty Pretty Things), is Tutsi, making her and their
children targets of the escalating violence. Desperate to save them, he bribes
the militia to free his family and then, unable to leave their friends and
neighbors behind, he gathers even more valuables to save their lives. They take
refuge in the Milles Collines, which offers protection not only because of its
status, but because of the UN peacekeeping soldiers stationed outside.

When a Red Cross worker drops off a van full of Tutsi orphans for
safekeeping, because the militias are attempting to wipe out the next generation
of "cockroaches," Paul can't turn them away. Little by little, the
Milles Collines becomes a refuge and Paul its reluctant caretaker. Day by
desperate day, he makes well-placed bribes to keep the violence at bay and to
get supplies for the burgeoning -- and nonpaying -- hotel guests.

When the peacekeeping forces withdraw and the intervention forces are sent
in with the sole mission of evacuating the remaining Europeans, Paul realizes
the world has turned a blind eye to his country and that their survival will
come down to the power of the individual.

The Evidence

Hotel Rwanda is not a movie about war. It's a movie about a man -- a
man who becomes a hero by attrition. Paul Rusesabagina is no Hollywood-sized
superhero. His connections gave him the power to help, but his nobility is the
nobility of the ordinary man in extraordinary circumstances, doing what he can
because there is no one else to do it.

The initial scenes set up Paul's isolationist, self-preserving attitudes
that are going to be stripped away. Pronouncements such as "I have no time
for politics" and "this is business" and "family is all that
matters" as he goes about running the hotel give way to almost a
resignation that he must help because he can. However, even when the Milles
Collines has begun to resemble a refugee camp, he can't fathom the reality that
his world has crumbled beyond repair. "Soon all of this will be over. What
if I lose my job?" he frets to Tatiana. Knowing what we know -- that he is
far more likely to lose his life -- it's a ridiculous concern, but it's also a
very human concern, and shows the finer side of this film's characterizations.
By the end, he is fighting without hesitation to do what he can as the last hope
for the people who arrive at the doors of the Milles Collines.

Don Cheadle is consistently fabulous in any role he takes on, and as
wonderful as Sophie Okonedo and many of the supporting actors are, they fade
into the background of what is obviously Cheadle's movie. His Paul at the
beginning is not oblivious -- we see his concern behind the façade of the
perfect host and perfect businessman. In his interactions with Tatiana, however,
we see his fear and his conviction as he becomes a reluctant hero who fights for
survival in increments. The cracks in his calm demeanor begin to show,
culminating in one powerful scene where he locks himself in a room for an
emotional release -- alone, because his strength is all that is holding so many
people together.

Amid the horrors of the situation, there is some humor and a lot of
humanity, brought out in the small moments between Paul and his wife. The movie
is not a bleak lesson in how the world should be ashamed of their inaction. It
is an uplifting account of a man who has much to fight for. In a more somber
moment, we see a demonstration of how people are relegated to the status of a
commodity, with an actual monetary worth, as Paul pays to save his family. But
we see a lighter take on this idea when Paul engineers a romantic moment for
Tatiana, then reveals that after first meeting her, he bribed her bosses to have
her transferred to Kigali so he could woo her. In these lighter moments,
especially, the movie shows us the ordinary people who can make a difference,
and avoids casting them as heroes and victims.

The opening sequences of the movie act as an education for those of us who
know little about the conflict, and while it's a necessary education, it's done
with no sophistication. The biggest weakness of the film is its use of
ill-defined secondary characters to provide the context of the story, as a
shortcut to explain the background to the Rwandan situation. Jack, a news
cameraman played by Joaquin Phoenix, bears the brunt of this treatment. It is up
to him to ask about the details of the ethnic divisiveness, resulting in a
speech about the history of Rwandan politics. And it is his awkward dialogue
that points out that on an individual level, there is little separating the Hutu
and Tutsi -- a point that had already been woven into the story more subtly in
many ways. But the filmmakers thought we still needed a scene where Jack
discovers that one woman he encounters in a bar is Hutu while her friend is
Tutsi, and says "they could be twins!"

Nick Nolte fares slightly better as the UN colonel who does what he can to
protect the refugees and preserve the peace but, when the violence escalates, is
forced to tell Paul that they will be withdrawing and can offer no immediate
help to Rwandans trying to flee the country. He does have the awkwardly
expository job of conveying the "why" to the audience, voicing the
opinion that the color of their skin has led to the Rwandans abandonment.
However, in a lesser movie, the individuals acting on behalf of the global
powers and world press would be portrayed as evil and uncaring themselves.
Instead, we see their shame. The movie rarely focuses on the bigger picture --
and it's at its weakest when it does -- but it generally excels in capturing the
drama on an individual level.

Jack and the reporter he works with are the token nod to the world press,
who brought footage of the massacre to the western world only to have it
ignored. We see a recreation of the news footage of machete attacks, but it is
distanced from the audience, shown on a small monitor on the reporter's desk as
the characters look on. The movie, which is rated PG-13, remains surprisingly
bloodless, though there are haunting images to remind us of the violence around
the "oasis of calm" that is the Milles Collines. The power of the
movie is emotional, not visceral.

The DVD arrives with a good, though not great, 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen
transfer. Some minor edge enhancement and compression artifacts are evident, but
overall the picture is sharp with well-defined colors and image detail. The
English soundtrack is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound, and
provides wonderfully clear dialogue and ambient sounds, punched up by the rear
channels during action sequences. A French Dolby Digital 2.0 is also
available.

The Rwandan genocide may have been ignored, but the movie was not. The
filmmakers used its Oscar nominations and critical and box office success to
turn some attention to Amnesty International. The DVD comes with an appeal by
Don Cheadle and a response card mentioning the current crisis in Darfur, Sudan.
In the extras, director and co-writer Terry George hammers home the point:
"It's going on again in Sudan, it's going on again in the Congo, and no
one's doing anything."

Fittingly, the extras are heavily weighed on the social impact of the movie
rather than the filmmaking process or the stars behind the screen. For star
power, Don Cheadle and musician Wyclef Jean offer commentary on selected scenes,
but their thoughtful if sparse comments focus on the message of the film and,
for Cheadle, the difficulty in acting something so far outside his own
experience.

Two featurettes, "A Message For Peace: Making Hotel Rwanda" and
"Return to Rwanda," highlight the real Paul Rusesabagina, who acted as
a consultant on the film. We do get some insight into the evolution of the
script, which began as a Traffic-like account of the civil war, but was
tightened to focus on the story of Paul and Tatiana. But for the most part, the
documentaries are a behind the scenes peek into Rwanda and Paul more than the
movie. Rusesabagina also partners with George on the commentary, explaining
details of the real-life story, to which -- despite some composite characters
and invented scenes -- the movie stayed quite faithful.

Though George in his comments and in the script blames racism for the global
indifference, Rusesabagina points out that the American's bad experience in
Somalia was a factor, as was the fact that the international community had no
interests in Rwanda, a nation that exports only coffee and tea. It's another
realization that the movie lacks the storytelling ability to convey those
nuances, but I still maintain that this is a film that rises above the flaws of
its script. It does not pretend to be an exhaustive exploration of the Rwandan
war. By tightening his focus on the individual level, George has sidestepped
some of the criticism I could level at its treatment of the bigger picture.

Closing Statement

What the movie lacks in finesse, it more than makes up for in power. I
wouldn't call it a great film in the grand sense of the word "great,"
but I will without hesitation attach that word to the acting and emotional heart
of the film, and that's more than enough to qualify this as a worthy addition to
a collection.

The Verdict

There's a lot of guilt to spread around here, but not for anyone associated
with the movie.